What is it about Taylor Swift that makes people hate her? The 26-year-old singer is constantly the subject of criticism, and last year Camille Paglia went so far as to call her a "Nazi Barbie".

Why do certain people find Taylor so hateful? Could it be that she is young, fit, beautiful, talented and not short of a bob or two. Could all this chatter be simple jealousy?

Taylor refuses to play dumb - the real reason, we suspect, that so many fingers are pointed at her.

The current hatred is centred on her breaking up with one handsome young man, Calvin Harris, and too 'swiftly' moving on to another, Tom Hiddleston.

Do we expect Taylor to don widow's weeds and go into mourning?

If Taylor were a 26- or even 66-year-old male musician, she would be the toast of the town. Ronnie Wood has just had twins at 69, and been widely congratulated.

Let's see Taylor, or any other woman, try that.

The ins and outs of being in

Eilis O'Hanlon

Frank Feighan

In or out? That was the big question of the week, but it had nothing to do with the UK's voting to stay in or leave the EU. Instead, it was the call by Senator Frank Feighan for Ireland to rejoin the Commonwealth, that motley crew of former colonies of Perfidious Albion presided over by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.

And they say that Irish politicians are out of touch with the needs and concerns of ordinary people.

The Fine Gael man (above) does have a point. What's wrong with stretching out the hand of cooperation and friendship to other nations? Unfortunately, that's what we thought when we joined Europe. Then they slapped us with the Troika and a €64bn bill for other people's debts.

With friends like that . . .

It's actually a wonder that Frank got elected at all with such topsy-turvy priorities. Oh, that's right - he didn't. The former TD for Roscommon was appointed to the upper house last month by the Taoiseach, having decided not to stand in February's general election.

So, if Ireland ever does rejoin the Commonwealth, at least he and the Queen should get on famously. After all, she wasn't elected to her current position either. Nice work if you can get it.

Nuclear Wintour and the Devil wears Schumer

Donal Lynch

You just want to run and protect Amy Schumer and her little Cabbage Patch doll face. From Madonna and Anna Wintour and all the other talent vampires who are hitching a ride on her coolness, leeching it away until she's just a legendary husk like them.

Amy (below), who appears on the cover of July's Vogue, and the Vogue editor have appeared in a skit where they tried to do each other's jobs, with the punchline being that Anna is "actually very funny" while Amy can't tell the difference between two identical ponchos (we think they were ponchos). The only problem was that even in a scripted moment, with a team of writers to help, Anna is only as funny as the phrase "Wintour is coming", which she uses on stage, and she never seems remotely like a real person.

Amy Schumer arrives at the GQ Men Of The Year Party.

In fairness, other stars have probably had to do worse to get into Vogue - Amy didn't play the mousy assistant and did get an Annie Leibovitz shoot out of it.

If Anna really wanted to be brave and down with the kids, maybe she and Amy could have swapped fringes.